Accelerating Infrastructure Action Plan: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Pat Casey (FF), Labour Panel I welcome the Minister, who is here to discuss what is probably one of most important reports ever to come before the House. I am not too sure exactly how we got to where we are in relation to the delays and the complications relating to the delivery of critical infrastructure. As the saying goes, however, we are where we are. We have to address this issue if we are going to move forward. I welcome the report. Judicial review, JR, has been mentioned. Maybe I will start with that. When we look at the current JR process, we say it is definitely not fit for purpose. We ask if it serves the common good or the interests of individuals and communities. Is it the letter of the law or the spirit of the law that is being applied? The answer to all of these questions is probably in the negative in the sense that the JR process suits interest groups rather than the common good of the people. The letter as opposed to the spirit of the law is being applied. I am concerned about the ability of planners to make decisions and use conditioning as a part of the process of granting permission. They just seem to be afraid, and they protect one another. With some of the offshore wind projects, the requests for further information are more extensive than the original planning application. There is something fundamentally wrong with that entire process. I will give the Minister a number of examples. It took more than 30 years for the Arklow wastewater treatment plant in Wicklow top be delivered. This was because of an individual who had the resources to drag the matter through every court in this country and in the EU. When we got out of that and Irish Water was established and came up with a new site, the new application for the Arklow wastewater treatment plant was done at the very same time as that relating to the greater Dublin drainage scheme. The Arklow wastewater treatment plant is now open and functioning, and the greater Dublin drainage scheme is still stuck in the process. Again, this goes back to the whole JR process in terms of picking a specific issue and focusing on it in order to delay progress on something that I believe was in the interests of the common good. Another aspect that the committee on EU scrutiny is dealing with is the transposition of EU regulations into Irish law, and the complete and utter lack of oversight in relation to that. There are options in every one of those regulations. Nobody in this House or the Lower House gets sight of any of the options. Sometimes, we go to extremes in relation to what we are looking at. Some developments in this country need to go to four, five or six State agencies in order to get approval. That is absolutely bonkers. I know of a private investment where €2 billion has been spent and where the entity involved is waiting for an EPA licence. The project is built and is ready to be occupied, yet it is just sitting there. What happens if approval is not given? Will the €2 billion investment be gone? The fundamentals of what is happening here have to be unwound. I do not know whether it goes back to the time of the crash when we brought in regulation to slow everything down and stop things from happening. Thankfully, we are now beginning to address it. That is why I believe this is probably the most critical piece of information because we cannot solve the problems that everybody has spoken about here tonight unless the infrastructure is there, regardless of whether it is water, wastewater, energy or transport infrastructure. I thank the Minister for the effort he has put into this. It is critical for the common good of every citizen that we get the balance right in order that we get the critical infrastructure that will deliver houses across the entire country as opposed to just in urban areas. We are talking about infrastructure; we are not talking about regional development or urban development. The problems are the same across the country. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-04